Drake Merwin
Immortality Whip Hand |bars = |age ='Season One' 14-15 15 Season Two 20 15 |parents = |siblings = |fate =Undead |books =''Gone Hunger Lies Plague Fear Light Monster'' }} Drake Merwin, or Drake Merwin, Junior, is an antagonist that appears throughout all of the Gone series. Description ;Appearance Drake is a tall, slim and lithe human male. Sam describes him as a "smiling, playful, mean-eyed kid" with shaggy, sandy-blonde hair that later turns to dirty blond or light brown (and is referred to as "dark" in Lies). His eyes are either gray or pale blue, and are often described as steely or icy, and soulless. Astrid states the expression in his eyes is "lizard-like." Drake is often described as having a shark-like smile; a smile that shows "too many teeth" with "too little humor." Orsay thinks his face would be handsome, were it not for his cold eyes, and Penny describes him as "attractive" but "in a dangerous way." In Gone, he loses his right arm after it was badly burnt by Sam, and had to be amputated. The arm was later replaced with a long, python-like whip by the Gaiaphage, who used Lana's healing abilities. As of Monster, Brittney's head is melded into his chest. ;Mental Health Drake is shown to be sadistic and psychopathic throughout the entirety of the series. His sadism is noted by his laughter when hurting others, namely Sam in the battle for the nuclear power plant. In Plague he remembers the joy that he got from burning frogs and microwaving puppies. In Fear he has become completely loyal to the Gaiaphage. After the FAYZ, he is a rapist. ;Personality Drake is a bully that enjoys tormenting people - slapping, knocking down and giving 'swirlies' to anyone who irritates him. He revels in being in a position of power and goes out of his way to prove his superiority, fighting anyone who challenges his authority. Skills and Powers Drake is good at operating firearms, a skill he had learned from his father. He has also demonstrated considerable skill in hand-to-hand combat, even against opponents much larger and stronger than himself. He is described as a 'very fast' and as 'nimble as a matador'. He was able to best Orc in a fight by dodging his larger, but slower opponent's attacks. After having his arm burned off by Sam, Drake's arm was regenerated by Lana. But instead of the arm being regenerated like it was before, Drake was given a whip made out of flesh. During the battle of the power plant, a portion of Drake's whip is embedded within one of the bodies of the plant's defenders, Brittney. When Drake is later killed by Caine, a portion of himself lives on in Brittney, who has the power of immortality. This allows Drake to be brought back to life, sharing the same body as Brittney, giving him access to her abilities. The Gaiaphage uses Lana's power to give him regeneration as well. He and Brittney's consciousnesses keep replacing each other at seemingly random times, until he is freed from her between Light and Monster. Appearances ;Before the FAYZ Drake was the son of a County Sheriff, who noted his psychopathic tendencies, even in his childhood, making for an apparently strained relationship, indeed, the only father-son moment that is ever mentioned over the course of the book is the time when Drake's father had taught Drake how to use firearms, something which would prove a life lesson for Drake. At some point between his arrival at Coates, he shot a local boy who tended to insult him with an air rifle, earning him a place at Coates. ;Gone Drake arrived in Perdido Beach with Caine and the other Coates Academy kids a few days after the adults disappeared. When Caine took the town over, he appointed Drake as sheriff and made a rule that allowed him to do whatever he thought was necessary in an emergency. It didn't take long for him to become one of the most feared people in the FAYZ. After Caine captured Sam, Astrid and her little brother Little Pete, Drake was left alone with Astrid, where he slapped her and intimidated her into calling her younger brother a retard. Right before she got the word out a second time, Little Pete then teleported out of the room and Drake spent the rest of the night looking for them, burning down their house and almost catching them at Clifftop Hotel in the process. Caine took him, along with Diana and Jack, back up to Coates to film Andrew "poof". Later on, Drake spotted a fire in the distance and knew Sam and his friends were coming up. He managed to catch them, bring them up to Coates at gunpoint and had Sam and Astrid's hands encased in concrete, but Little Pete freed their hands after Sam distracted Drake. Drake tried to shoot little Pete, but Sam burned his gun arm so badly that it had to be cut off for him to survive. He had Panda drive him into Perdido Beach to find Lana, because he thought she might be able to heal his arm back. He forced her to leave with him, but driving through the desert they ran into Orc and Howard, who were being attacked by mutated coyotes. They made a deal, in which they went to the Gaiaphage and Lana healed Drake's arm into a ten-foot long whip. Lana tried to just heal his hand but she couldn't. Later on, he and the coyotes went into town and fought on Caine's side in the battle that took place on Caine and Sam's birthday. However, Drake spent very little time in the main part of the battle, instead fighting an aggravated (and by that time, fully mutated) Orc, who was, at the time, intoxicated. ;Hunger In Hunger, Drake had taken charge while Caine was out of it from his encounter with the Gaiaphage. When Caine came back he wasn't too happy going back to being second in command. When Caine took over the power plant, Drake came up with the idea to put up wires in case Brianna ran through at super speed, which caused a conflict with Jack. Drake stayed back at the power plant when Caine left to bring a fuel rod to the mine. He waited for Sam to walk into the reactor room and threatened to cause a nuclear meltdown if Sam didn't stay and let him torture him. Drake whipped him to near death, but Brianna intervened, running through and cutting off his whip arm. Drake then caught up with Caine and went along to the mineshaft with him. At the mineshaft, he became angry with Diana and attempted to kill her, which made Caine very upset. He used his telekinetic powers to throw the fuel rod at Drake, impaling him on it, and then collapsing the mine on him. After this, everyone presumed Drake to be dead. ;Lies At the beginning of Lies, everyone believed Caine killed Drake, though through the part of Drake that was embedded in Brittney's body, he was resurrected, but forcing him to share the same body. Drake spent a long time trying to dig out of the grave that Brittney had been pushed into, while Brittney herself attempted to halt his progress.Throughout the book various people reported to have seen him around town and the body of a boy who seemed to have been whipped to death was found, making many people think he was still alive. Their suspicions were confirmed near the end of the book, when Drake is seen outside the daycare by Mary and later was seen going after all of the kids who were headed for the cliff. Sam attempted to burn him, but he changed into Brittney. Even though she begged him to kill her, he wasn't able to get himself to do it and both she and Drake lived. In the end, everyone figured out that Drake and Brittney shared a body and they were kept in a basement, guarded by Orc and Howard. ;Plague In Plague, Drake was still trapped in Orc's basement, but he soon tricked Orc and escaped with Jamal. Brianna found him and tried to stop him, even cutting him into pieces at one point, but Brittney’s immortality kept him alive and he was able to put himself back together. They then headed to the mineshaft to see the Gaiaphage, where Drake became commander of the mutant bugs and let them eat Jamal. He decided to go after Sam, sending half of his bug army into town and taking half with him to Lake Tramonto. Drake failed to get Sam though, as he and his friends were on a boat in the lake and came up with an escape plan that got them to the other side of the FAYZ. Drake then went to Coates, where he unleashed his bugs on Orc and tried to threaten Astrid into giving up Little Pete. Astrid threw her brother to the bugs and Drake's whole army disappeared. ;Fear Drake is living with the Gaiaphage in the mineshaft. He still shares a body with Brittney, and mentions that he would like to be able to talk about it with her. The Gaiaphage tells him to kidnap Diana from Lake Tramonto and on the way, he also takes Justin. Once he brings them to the Gaiaphage, Diana gives birth to the baby in the mineshaft. Once Gaia is born, Drake, Penny, Diana and Gaia go up to the surface to battle Sam and Caine. The last we see of Drake is him running away with Diana and Gaia. ;Light After the final events during Fear, Drake, Diana and Gaia all leave Perdido Beach to escape Sam and to heal. Due to Gaia's super growth, Drake goes out to find her some food, as Britney emerges, Brianna arrives and starts splitting Britney into multiple pieces. She sets the head on a rock while she scatters the body pieces around the FAYZ. Drake's head is then put in a cooler with pieces of lizards, broken eggs and pieces of concrete. They sink the cooler in Lake Tramonto. After the battle, Drake's head is recovered by the adult Alex Mayle. Alex brings Drake to Gaia and Drake begs Gaia to give him back a body. Gaia cuts Alex's head off and sets Drake's head on top. Later on, Gaia makes a new whip for Drake, a new and better one. Drake promises to Gaia to go and find Astrid, to use her as a hostage against Little Pete. When Drake finds Astrid, he kidnaps her to an abandon house where he begins to whip her. In an attempt to escape, Astrid bites Drake's nose and push her thumbs into his eyes, hurting Drake. Taylor arrives to save Astrid at Little Pete's request. When the FAYZ wall comes down, Sam doesn't want to leave until he finished things off with Drake. He goes back into the fire and realizes that his powers do not work anymore. Drake believes he will kill Sam but Drake loses his immortality/regeneration. His head falls off of Alex's body. Sam takes Drake's head and throws it in the fire burning in the church, seemingly ending Drake's unnatural life. ;Monster Drake has been spotted by satellite in his old body again (somehow) with Brittney's head half-emerged from his chest. He is approached by Peaks, who recruits him. Drake later battles with Peaks against Dekka Talent, Armo, and Shade Darby. Notes * Drake thought about hurting Gaia, due to her looking like her mother, Diana. * When he was younger, he witnessed his mother being beaten by his new stepfather and gradually came to believe she must have liked it because she kept undertaking certain actions to anger him. * Both of Drake's arms are clearly visible in his book cover appearances. * Drake's grandfather, also named Drake, reveals to Connie Temple that he himself is also very sadistic. * Drake can sing. * As of Monster, Drake has stopped using his last name. * One of Drake's favourite movies is Saw II. * Coates actually made Drake worse, as his sadistic fantasies turned from hurting small animals to hurting small humans (although he'd already shot Holden in the leg, that was not a sadistic move, just an unhinged one). * Drake was the seventh confirmed person to turn fifteen in the FAYZ after Emma, Anna, Benno, Andrew, Sam, and Caine. Gallery Drake Hunger trailer.png Drake Plague trailer.png Church Plague trailer.png|Drake fighting Brianna Drake Lies US trailer.png Light trailer - Astrid.png|Astrid being choked by Drake Drake.png Drake Merwin.jpg|Drake on the back cover of Lies Drake Merwin Plague.png|From the back cover of Plague Category:Characters Category:Antagonist Category:Coates Student Category:Male Characters Category:Main Characters Category:Survivors Category:Mutants